Sony Touch-Sensitive Printer Patent Uncovered

Someone whom I don’t doubt was suffering from a bout of what I call Wednesday Syndrome (nothing whatsoever happening) has been trawling the US Patent Office and uncovered an interesting entry from Sony, relating to a printer controlled via a touchscreen interface. Or, more specifically, an “Image forming device, having an ejection tray, and a display is mounted to a cover.”

The patent was submitted in September of last year but only because available to the public within the last week. The accompanying images and surrounding explanation detail that the clamshell device would, if ever made, combine a large surface for displaying images from an attached camera enabling them to be edited before printing.

Think of it as vaguely akin to of Microsoft Surface with the twofold added benefits of being small enough to fit into an average person’s house and also not costing tens of thousands of your currency of choice. Although there’s no indication that Sony is ever going to make such a product, even as a prototype or proof of concept, let alone sell it.

Still, I think it’s pretty nifty and you never know, if you take a gander at the patent you could just be looking at the future of printing.